Sustainability Series
Week 1: Decarbonising cement and concrete

The concrete industry is collaborating to decarbonise and is making good progress on its roadmap to achieve beyond net zero by 2050. This week will provide an update of progress and feature a range of innovations and ongoing initiatives to showcase just some of the work being undertaken to reduce the carbon impacts of concrete in manufacture and construction.

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Colne Valley Viaduct is the UK’s longest rail bridge, made from over 1,000 precast segments weighing up to 140 tonnes each. Lower-carbon concretes, including mixes with up to 70% GGBS, helped cut embodied carbon by 28% compared to the original High Speed Rail Bill design. 

Launch event: Accelerating decarbonisation of cement and concrete

The 2025 Sustainability Series launched with the latest progress report from the MPA’s UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero. The event highlighted key initiatives driving decarbonisation across the sector.

Speakers included John Egan (CEO, Peak Cluster Ltd) on UK carbon capture developments, Jonathan Ly (Director, Structures, Canary Wharf Group) on using low-carbon concrete in construction and Sam Bell (Group Leader, Sustainable Cement and Concrete, Materials Processing Institute) on a new testing facility for sustainable cement and concrete. Diana Casey (Executive Director, MPA) will present the update on progress of the UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero, with printed copies available to in-person attendees.

Catch up on-demand: Presentations given on the evening were recorded as an on-demand resource. The webinar will be available shortly.

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Sustainability Series FOCUS events

Within the 2025 Sustainability Series we're spotlighting cutting-edge technologies helping to reduce the carbon impact of concrete in both manufacture and construction.

Sustainability Series FOCUS: Smart Concrete Sensors & Predictive AI

This session will explore how real-time data and machine learning are enabling the use of lower carbon concrete without compromising performance, using Converge’s predictive AI solutions. A recording of this event is available here.

Sustainability Series FOCUS: In-transit concrete monitoring

Within the 2025 Sustainability Series we're spotlighting cutting-edge technologies helping to reduce the carbon impact of concrete in both manufacture and construction. A recording of this event is available here.

Sustainability Series FOCUS: Carbon Capture and Storage at Padeswood

This presentation explores Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood cement plant in north Wales, which will be the first in the UK to be fitted with carbon-capture technology and aims to be producing zero-carbon cement by 2029. A recording of this event is available here.

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Spotlight on: UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero

MPA published the UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero in 2020, to show how, through different levers, the sector will achieve its decarbonisation goals. A progress report has recently been published to show the progress being made within the industry and to outline the sector’s trajectory to 2050. The report includes details of ongoing projects and research for levers including fuel switching, transport, lower carbon cements and concretes, carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and carbonation.

• The UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero is available to download here.
• The 2025 Progress report is available to download here. 

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Spotlight on: Market benchmarking

The 2025 update of the Lower Carbon Concrete Group (LCCG) Market Benchmark is now available. Published by The Concrete Centre on behalf of the LCCG, the guide is based on data from the MPA, covering approximately 56% of the ready-mixed concrete produced in the UK in 2024.

• Download the latest guide and data here.

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Spotlight on: EPDs for concrete

Environmental product declarations, or EPDs, provide transparent data on construction products to help designers choose building materials with lower environmental impacts. An EPD is based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) over the full product value chain using indicators for climate change and other environmental impacts, as well as resource use. In 2024, MPA published five new sector EPDs for ready-mixed concrete, and in 2025, MPA Precast published new sector EPDs for hollowcore and T beam flooring, to help designers understand and quantify the impacts of their mix design choices.

• More information and links to sector EPDs for cement, ready-mixed concrete and precast products are available here.
• The Concrete Quarterly Summer 2024 includes a technical article explaining why EPDs are becoming increasingly important and how designers can best use them to inform early-stage decisions. It is available to read here.

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Spotlight on: carbon capture

Carbon capture is key to decarbonising UK cement and concrete. Heidelberg Materials’ Padeswood plant in North Wales will be the first UK cement plant to be fitted with carbon-capture technology and should be producing net zero cement by 2029.

The Peak Cluster, encompassing three cement and lime plants in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, has the potential to be the world’s biggest cement and lime decarbonisation project - the plants are responsible for 40% of the cement and lime manufactured in the UK. These projects demonstrate the progress being made in implementing carbon capture in the UK and you can find out more about them using the links below.

• John Egan, CEO, Peak Cluster is sharing an update on the development of the Peak Cluster as part of the Sustainability Series launch event, for which a recording will be available shortly. 
• Iain Walpole, Heidelberg Materials, gives an update on the ongoing Padeswood CCS project in Sustainability Series FOCUS. 

More information on both projects is available in Concrete Futures Spring 2025.